How To Read and Take Notes in Research Otto No. 1
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ScribdTranslationsHow To Read and Take Notes in Research Otto No. 1
Uploaded by
ScribdTranslationsHow to Read and Take Notes in Research
Reading is essential for conducting research, regardless of any type of support, whether
textual, graphic, electronic or audio, since all information coexists and enriches each
other when it comes to supporting a study.
Generally, reading and writing go hand in hand; both are the main keys to acquiring and
assimilating knowledge. Practicing them as part of the research process provides
immediate, medium-term, or long-term preparation for producing writings. Reading, in a
broad sense, is decoding signs of various kinds, from sounds to graphics, which leads
us to deduce that everything we recognize and give meaning to goes through a reading
lens. However, reading becomes selective and reaches another level to the extent that
we assign it a purpose and interest.
Among the knowledge, skills and attitudes of a competent reader to conduct research
are:
Be an avid reader.
Have the objective and interest of carrying out research.
Rely on a research project, a work guide or a questionnaire.
Knowing how to retrieve information through different types of notes, since it is
unquestionable that any academic work requires personal integration and
production, through syntheses, comments and summaries of the texts provided by
the sources of information.
Identify other people's discourse from one's own, distinguishing between references,
notes, abbreviated references and bibliography, that is, everything concerning the
constituent parts of the critical apparatus.
Recognize that there are different types of texts and that not all of them are read the
same or used in the same way.
Identify environments, postures, biological problems, among other aspects that
prevent quality readings.
Knowing that information management also depends on the types of text and
discourse.
The researcher is therefore faced with two types of reading to carry out his activity:
exploratory (or pre-reading) and thorough reading. The first is called exploratory
because it is general and fast (although it does not exempt quality and attention), and is
aimed at indexes, introductions, prologues, prefaces, beginnings of chapters and
conclusions. After the exploratory reading, a thorough reading of each selected text
follows. It is an interactive process of knowledge acquisition that transforms any reader
into an expert on the subject studied.
To take notes in research you must:
Read only enough to have an understanding of the subject matter
Do not take notes, but rather focus on understanding the topic.
It's tempting to take notes as you read for the first time, but this is not an efficient
technique: you'll probably be writing down too much information and simply copying it
down without understanding.
Locate the main ideas, as well as important subtopics
Paraphrase this information: Putting information from the textbook into your own
words forces you to actively engage with the subject matter.
Add only enough detail to understand.
Review and compare your notes with the text, and ask yourself if you have truly
understood.
Exploratory Research
It is normally carried out when the objective is to examine a topic or research problem
that has been little studied or that has not been addressed before, that is, when there is
no previous research on the object of study or when our knowledge of the topic is so
vague and imprecise that it prevents us from drawing the most provisional conclusions
about which aspects are relevant and which are not. It is first required to explore and
investigate, for which exploratory research is used. To explore a relatively unknown
topic, a wide spectrum of means and techniques are available to collect data in different
sciences, such as: specialized bibliographic review, interviews and questionnaires,
participant and non-participant observation, and case monitoring. This type of
study is common in behavioral research, especially in situations where there is little
information.
Therefore, the need for exploratory research arises when it is necessary:
Gain insight into the possibility of conducting more comprehensive research on a
particular real-life context. Therefore, this type of study aims to generate data and
hypotheses that constitute the raw material for more precise research.
Investigate behaviors that are considered crucial.
Identify promising concepts or variables.
Establish priorities for future research.
Suggest verifiable statements (postulates).
An example of exploratory research is when we travel to a place we don't know, about
which we haven't seen any documentary or read any book (although we have looked for
information about it), but rather someone has simply made a brief comment about the
place. When we arrive, we don't know what attractions to visit, what museums to go to,
where the food is good, what the people are like; we don't know much about the place.
The first thing we do is explore: ask the taxi driver or the bus driver who will take us to
the hotel where we will stay, at the reception desk, the waiter at the hotel bar and, in
short, any friendly person we see about what to do and where to go. In general, this type
of research is characterized by the great flexibility offered in its methodology, involves
greater risk and requires patience, serenity and receptivity on the part of the researcher.
Exploratory research focuses on discovery. Historical research and Documentary
research are exploratory in nature. Descriptive research is generated from exploratory
studies.
